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Migraine "auras" found to increase stroke risk

Posted on Dec 13th 2007 8:57AM by Chris Sparling

Filed Under: Womens Health, HealthWatch, Diet & Weight Loss, Men's Health

Do you ever experience migraine "auras?" Seeing black spots, flashing lights, and having distorted vision occurs in fifteen percent of migraine sufferers, something that may be more dangerous than first thought.

Researchers from the University of Maryland School of Medicine discovered that young women that experience these "auras" have a fifty percent greater chance of suffering an ischemic stroke than those who don't have these symptoms with their migraine headaches.

If you are a migraine sufferer and do experience these "auras," it is important that you speak with your doctor about it if you haven't already. Ischemic stroke is caused by a blood clot in an artery to the brain, so clearly this is not something you want to ignore.

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Tags: auras, Chris Sparling, ChrisSparling, doctor, headache, migraine, stroke

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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)

Judy 12-13-2007 @ 11:56PM

This is really scary to me.

I used to get migraines when I was younger, but hadn't had one since early 2000, when I was 21, so I thought maybe I was done with them.

A couple months ago, right after my husband left for work, and during a rather stressful period of time, I started having the aura, but it was worse, and after so long it was very scary. Eventually, my whole left arm went numb and weak, which I know can be a sign of stroke. My husband came home from work (I couldn't see or function well enough to take care of small children), and we were in the hospital parking lot as I started to feel better (the headache came on and the aura went away), so I didn't go to the ER.

I thought, then, that I might be having a stroke. It was very very scary for me and my husband.

And now to know tha tit means I'm at a higher risk, with a family history added in, doesn't make me feel better.

It goes to show that we can do as much as we can for our health, but there are always those things we can't control.